


Toast to Memory

by tirsynni



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Multi, Tarsus IV, light spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-28
Updated: 2016-08-28
Packaged: 2018-08-11 15:55:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7898770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tirsynni/pseuds/tirsynni
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>James T. Kirk didn’t talk about Tarsus IV. Never sober, anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Toast to Memory

James T. Kirk didn’t talk about Tarsus IV. Never sober, anyway.

Only a handful of people in the entire galaxy knew he had been there. There had been more, but most died due to the Narada.

Leonard “Bones” McCoy, as far as he knew, was the only one on the Enterprise who knew. He knew about Tarsus IV, and thanks to a hell of a lot of cheap whiskey and long nights, he knew what Jim had done to survive.

If Jim’s words drove Bones to whiskey some nights, he never told Jim. There were too many cracks in Jim’s wild grins as it was.

xoxoxox

If Kodos knew about Jim’s allergies, he would have put him on the to-die list. For once in his life, thought, being the Kelvin baby was a blessing instead of a burden. Jim took that flash of freedom to herd as many kids away as he could.

“Only seven survived,” Jim told Bones, voice slurred and eyes red. “There were thirteen kids, Bones. Thirteen kids.”

Bones poured him another finger.

Getting them out wasn’t enough. It was just the start.

“Thirteen,” Jim wept.

xoxoxox

Feeding children when the world was starving was nigh impossible. At fourteen, Jim was the oldest, if only by a handful of months. Thomas Leighton, at 13, was his second in command, right up until they startled a guard.

“Never told him what I did to save him and get medical supplies.”

“What happened to him?”

“One of the survivors of the Narada. By the skin of his teeth. He’s back in space now. One of the strongest people I know.”

Jim agreed to let Bones see his medical records. Malnutrition weakened growing bones. There were hairline fractures in his hipbones.

“Starfleet came a week later. Tom wouldn’t have survived otherwise.”

xoxoxox

The first child, an already skinny 10-year-old boy, died in his sleep. He had been on the death list. His twin sister, same list, had to be carried away. Jim, barely bigger than her, carried her to their next camp.

At first, they moved every week to watch out for patrol. When the children grew too weak, they holed away, and the older kids scavenged for food.

The fifth child died due to hunger driving her to eat the local flora.

“Think it was more an allergic reaction that killed her than anything else, but we didn’t dare try again.”

xoxoxox

The first time Jim was caught by a patrol, he was alone and there were two men. They were aggressive, careless, high on their new power and arrogant with being _chosen_. That was the only reason Jim survived.

X-rays showed more hairline fractures in his right arm and shoulder. The medical logs noted more injuries to his right wrist and fingers.

“No wonder you can never win a fight,” Bones observed.

Jim’s laugh sounded like a sob.

“First time I ever killed someone…and I killed two guys. Always aiming high.”

xoxoxox

The day before Starfleet came, Jim left the camp to scavenge for food. It was the last time he saw his kids face-to-face. For two years, he had no idea any of them had survived, all because the same guard who shot Tom caught him again.

“Third murder,” Jim said.

The guard had been fed, one of the few who had been. Jim found the reports later. There were riots after the initial slaughter. Fear dominated. People who watched family members be killed went mad. Food for Kodos’s chosen went bad quicker than Kodos had anticipated.

But the guard, armed and strong, survived better than many of his peers. He had been fed, and he had already sampled Jim once.

Jim disclosed to Bones their second year of their five-year mission, the night of his birthday. He was the same age as when George Kirk died.

“Do you think he would be ashamed? I let him the first time. I –”

Bones stopped him there and spent the rest of the night soothing him until Jim passed out.

Jim never mentioned it again.

Bones saw pictures of the man’s corpse. He was twice the size of Jim’s skin and bones self. He died of blunt trauma to the head via a nearby rock. Phaser burns to 75% of his body were administered post-mortem.

xoxoxox

Winona Kirk swept him away after he was found and buried everything. The children only knew him as JT. Only Kodos and his high-ranking officers knew his name, and they were all presumed dead. She buried his name and tucked him away on Earth.

“That’s when I went wild,” Jim told Bones after his miraculous return to life. His first time getting drunk and nothing resembling tolerance left. He laughed so hard he felt over on Bones’s lap. Tears streamed down his cheeks. “Mom couldn’t bury _that_.”

Bones pet his hair until he calmed down.

Of all the charges he accumulated in his wild years, they never caught him hacking. That was the only way he found his kids.

“Nothing stays buried forever.”

xoxoxox

Jim didn’t talk about Tarsus IV. Not sober. Bones recognized when the tension built in him and knew when to pull him away, liquor him up, and let him vent. Sometimes, he talked about Pike. Sometimes about his uncle Frank. Sometimes his brother. When he was really drunk, he talked about Tarsus IV, but only to Bones.

Watching Nyota and Spock watch Jim, Bones thought it was time for Jim to talk to other people about Tarsus IV. Watching Jim smile at his birthday party, some heavy weight flying out into space with Balthazar, Bones thought Jim might finally be ready.

If Jim wasn’t, they had time. Thanks to Jim and the other members of the Enterprise, they had plenty of time.


End file.
